Path Of Retribution
by DanteDonovan
Summary: Nero's world is torn apart, and when it seems all is well again, chaos ensues. Will Dante be of any help or will he just add fuel to the fire? Rated mature (actually rated R) lol-contains blood, gore, non-con, corruption, sexual content, m/m (yaoi), m/f (het) master/slave, body modification, torture, abuse, action, relationships, Dante/Nero, Nero/Vergil, angst, graphic details
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** When reading this you will find that maybe some people's ages are different than prob originally, or that a place's location might be in a different area than it's supposed to be, or even a character's history. I did that on purpose. Make it a bit more fun and not a constant repeat of every story read. Just so you don't think you're confusing something.

**Also:** This story isn't centered around sweet family life all the way through. Just a couple beginning chapters. I know my grammar is not the best out there but I try ^_^ I hope you enjoy!

* * *

**_"To whom it may concern, _**

**_Nero and Kyrie would like to invite you to join in the celebration of their Holy union that shall take place in the fully restored Church Of Fortuna. The date and time is August 14th, 11:30 am. It is asked that the attendees be dressed appropriately for this formal occasion. " _**

**_Have a Blessed day~_**

* * *

_'He did it. The kid actuall did it. Took him long enough.' _Dante chuckled sitting at his desk as he looked down at the invitation still held in his hands. The special paper that felt like silk, the font colored gold, and the simple yet elegant design of vines and roses on the side. Of course he would attend. All the demons in the universe wouldn't stop him from being there, after all, he considered Nero a very special friend indeed. He's always been fond of the kid since the very first time they beat the crap out of each other. Dante reminisced. How long has it been since then, two years, perhaps a bit more? He just knew it had been quite some time. Dante and Nero made sure to keep in touch, randomly sending each other letters (filled with the most outlandish insults and creative cursing known to man) showing that they were more than each others' allies. They were friends.

Suddenly there was a loud noise of the doors of Devil May Cry being flung open and hitting the walls. Dante didn't even bother to see who it was, he already knew, the two of his girls had stopped by to most likely pick on him, as always. "Hey Trish, and of course miss temper, Lady too." To which Lady's response was an evil glare, only to receive an oboxiously blown kiss in return. After the mild play Dante relaxed back into his chair.

"What's the matter with you? Did you take some weird drugs or something while we were gone? I don't think I've seen you this passive since, well, I don't know when." Trish inquired suspiciously. Usually Dante would put a lot more into pissing Lady off than he did, there was just no effort in it. "Hey, what's that?" Her eyes catching sight of a small card half hidden in Dante's hand, which also seemed to be the culprit of the man's laid back behavior. Before he had a chance, Trish snatched it from him and ran over to Lady.

"Hey, give that back! You better not ruin that, it's very important!" The half-devil pleaded with a very worried look on his face. A look that very quickly turned into horror, and then fear, sweat growing on his forehead. He knew he was doomed, because nothing ever good came of combining women and the subject of marriage. He watched as the women's faces grew brighter and brighter, giant smiles forming, and the giggles. Oh God not the giggles. Dante's eyes squeezed shut as their mouths started to move...

"Aww that is so cuuuuute!" came in unison. Dante's head dropped onto the desk, cringing as the never ending womanly babble ensued. "Aww no picture of the couple in here?", "I've seen them both and tell you what, the girl is a cutey, but Nero, damn that boy's a looker." Followed by an appreciative whistle. "I want to go. I haven't been to a wedding in forever. A shame events like this are invitation only." "Ooh I wonder what type of dress she chose? Closed top, strapless, long flowing train or maybe the shorter more elegant type?" "I wonder what their color theme is. White and blue, maybe yellows too, perhaps purples?" "Oh that would be a beautiful combination!"

A migraine was beginning to make itself known, steadily increasing, then finally coming to be when his ears caught the word "shopping." Warily Dante raised his head to look at the two VERY excited looking women. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Then suddenly alert that in his mission of ignoring them, he had missed something important, and now he was going to get it. Yet, strangely enough, no one yelled.

Trish rolled her eyes. "You've been ignoring us. We said that we need to take you shopping! We all know you don't have any suits or anything in that measly closet of yours." Dante glared. "Lady says she knows of a really nice formal store that has a big variety of suits and ties. Besides, you could also use our help on what to bring as a gift since I'm sure Kyrie isn't into weaponry." Trish laughed while Dante smiled and shook his head. Where would he be without his girls?

* * *

Sorry for such a short chapter. The next ones will be longer. This one is more of the 'setting the feel'


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

Holy Mother of...  
ok a long chapter you can do it!  
It's a wedding, tons of stuff happen at them. I also didn't want to give the typical-his suit was really nice and her dress was fabulous and they had fun and then went home-  
I hope you like! I checked grammar, spelling, then gave a full read through to check anything that was missed and fix. I'm sure there are still some naughties in there, but nothing that should ruin your reading experience too much! lol

* * *

Nero was a nervous wreck. Everyone knew since all he had been doing was walking around; sitting down, walking around some more, then repeat the actions all over again. One of his friends of the Order had come over to him, telling (more like forcing) Nero to go to his room and get ready, that they would take care of the rest of the preparations. Without hesitation, he spun around and took off as fast as he could to leave the main room. Of course, once there, he did nothing but pace back and forth. Finally having exhausted himself Nero flopped down into the chair that was facing the full-length mirror. _'Now I know why it's called cold feet. I feel like I want to run away, be anywhere but here. I'm not going to run away, but damn, this just needs to get done and over with already before I die of a heart attack before I even change. Pull it together, you can do this. You've fought thousands of demons through your life, been sucked into a gigantic statue, and everything in between...Saying "I do" should be a piece of cake, right?' _ All he could hope that his internal pep talk and scolding would be enough. The problem wasn't that he was second-guessing his decision to marry Kyrie, not at all. The main issue that was getting to him was that he never showed his feelings to anyone, but now, he was going to throw himself in the midst of a situation that he had no control over. Revealing what was in his heart, complete vulnerability, being so exposed that it would be like being naked. Nero closed his eyes and sighed. It was time to get ready (though earlier than necessary) but there was something he needed to address to a certain someone.

xXx

Dante looked in the mirror, leaning in close to make sure he didn't miss a spot shaving, which thankfully he hadn't since he didn't think to check until after putting the suit on. He ran a comb through his hair one more time to make sure it was as nice as possible. "Ok, now for the full view, you handsome stud." Smiling, he backed up a few steps so he could take it all in. He had to admit that Lady and Trish really were a lot of help for this and suffering through the girlish excitement, they had about being able to play dress up with him brought on endless joy. On their side of course. They picked a traditional black suit for him; the lapels were of fine satin, the buttons of gold that had lions etched on them. The girls were convinced it still wasn't enough, so searched around and found a nice form-fitting vest to go with it. Since he never wanted to go anywhere without his beloved red coat, a red button up shirt was found to cease his whining, and as luck would have it, a very nice tie that was black with small red pinstripes. The one thing that amazed Dante the most was that the girls demanded they pay for it. Their reasoning was because he never really made a true friend in his life, especially one that he would go so far as to write letters to while laughing and smiling. What made it entertaining to Trish and Lady was there were a few times, when they had walked into the shop, seeing him suddenly hiding a paper under a magazine. He would change his expression to one of either being bored, or tired. The girls knew that Dante just didn't want to admit that he had a buddy because of the constant teasing he would most likely get from it. After a while, Dante stopped hiding the letters when he was writing them since he knew that they had figured it out, and bless their demon killing hearts, left him alone. He did know for sure that they were gossiping to each other behind his back, which made him testy at times, but never brought it up since they at least did it when he wasn't around.

Satisfied with the look, Dante turned around to go downstairs, but not before he took a giant breath to brace himself for the squeals that were coming, and he didn't have to wait long. He had made it only halfway down the stairs before Trish and Lady ran to him. "Oh wow you look amazing!" "I can't believe you clean up this well!" "Why can't you do this more often?" On and on they went, Dante having to push his way through them so he could complete his descent to the lower level. Even though it looked pretty damn good when he last checked, Trish and Lady still had to slightly adjust the tie, find an imaginary piece of fuzz to pick off, complete with a swift rebuff of his shiny dress shoes (even though they couldn't have gotten any more shiny than they already were). Once done they both took a step back to admire their handiwork of suiting him.

"Ok girls, now that you've had your fun, I really need to get going since the ferry leaves in 30 minutes. I know it's only 10 minutes away but I want to get there early to make sure I don't miss it." With that, Dante waved as he left the store.

xXx

As suits go for special occasions such as this, after much scrutiny, Nero decided it wasn't that bad. At first he thought Kyrie was going overboard with her decisions for this, but considering on how she kept jumping him with all these ideas about wedding plans and attire, he figured it would be better to just give her the reigns. "Women." was muttered, followed with a smile, and examined the image before him. True to the love of his blue colored jacket, the suit had been made with that color as well. The one thing he had fought against Kyrie about ended up being a good decision. On the sleeve of his right arm, with the Devil Bringer, was fine golden thread delicately hand stitched vines with outlines of roses here and there. It ran from the shoulder all the way down to the wrist and only being about three inches in width, gave it a very slimming look. She had been right. By doing this, it wouldn't make his hand the center of attention, but give it something to blend in with. Since the color theme of the decorations was going to be in blues and white, Kyrie had decided that he have a slightly lighter blue vest, a white shirt, the tie being the same color of the suit. As he buttoned up his jacket, he smiled that she had gone to the trouble to find gold ones that each had a rose design on them. "Just like my favorite jacket...God I love her." With a quick final tug to make sure it was straight, Nero realized that he wasn't feeling as anxious as he had been earlier, and that he was extremely grateful for. Satisfied with the result he turned around and left his room. It was time to pick up his friend.

xXx

The skies were blue, the waters were calm, the temperature just right. Dante couldn't help but think this was definitely a beautiful day and how the kid was even more lucky, so if anything was located outside of the church, they all would still be able to enjoy themselves. The boat had reached the dock so he stood up, brushed himself off, and started scanning the area. In the process, almost falling on his ass via tripping while getting off the boat since he was too busy looking elsewhere. Back and forth, his eyes roamed with no luck, he didn't see anybody he knew, so he decided to just go ahead and start heading for the church. _'Damn kid stood me up, he's gonna get it later.' _ Dante mused while walking, then stopping short at the sight that greeted him. Not too far off he saw Nero, waving at him as he jogged over, but looking damn good.

"Hey!" Nero smiled as he came to a stop in front of his friend. "I'm glad you made it."

"Kid, I wouldn't miss this if there were a thousand Hell Gates spawning."

Nero decided to let the 'Kid' comment slide. He was in too good a mood to care, plus there was another thing on his mind he needed to speak to Dante about. He turned to begin walking back to the church, Dante in stride next to him. "So, uh, I have something I need to talk to you about...it's about the wedding."

"What's wrong?" Recognizing the sudden seriousness in Nero's tone was a bit upsetting. Dante figured he'd wait for the full explanation before jumping to any conclusions, one of which the kid was having second thoughts.

"And before you say anything, no, I'm not having second thoughts" Nero said playfully, followed by a snicker from Dante. "Here's the thing, well situation, uh maybe problem? Kyrie's father is in the hospital. He had a mild heart attack, but nothing serious. Turns out his blood had thickened so they're keeping him there a few days on an IV to help thin it down again, and then they can release him, after that just need to take medications. Sooo, because of that...and Credo is no longer with us, and there are some of our friends...and of course some of her family members, but we weren't sure...I was thinking it, but Kyrie was the one who brought it up first, but, uh, well..."

Dante stopped short and sighed, giving Nero a stern look when he turned to face him. "Look kid, I can't do anything to help until you just spit it out. Stop beating around the bush and tell me what's going on."

At first, Nero looked everywhere possible that wasn't Dante, but he had to do this, closing his eyes he quickly blurted out. "Kyrie and I were wondering if you would walk her down the aisle!" He kept his eyes shut, hoping not to hear laughing at him, hoping he hadn't overstepped his bounds. Feeling a hand on his shoulder, giving a firm squeeze, Nero looked up.

"Of course I will." Dante smiled and gave a wink "Of course you're risking her not being able to wear white by asking me to do this, after all, you're not going to be around beforehand."

"You asshole!" Followed by a glowing Devil Bringer heading straight to Dante's face.

Dante was ready for it and quickly jumped back with his hands up in front of him. "Hey, kid, you'll ruin my suit!" He definitely appreciated that Nero had such control over his arm because it stopped instantly right as the knuckle was touching his nose.

"Oh shit, sorry about that." Nero giving a sheepish look. "Do you even know how hard it's going to be for me to not just start yelling at you and starting some random fight? Especially since the church has been fully restored and I prefer how it looked after we tore it up." laughing as he glanced over.

"Hahaha! Ain't that the truth! Well, as difficult as it will be for the both of us, we will have to work hard on restraining ourselves. If anything for the sake of not traumatizing the young children."

Nero rolled his eyes. "Like you ever would give a shit about that. Hell, I'm sure you encourage that behavior any chance you get."

"I can assure you I have no clue what you're talking about."

The two hunters stared silently at each other before bursting out laughing and once they got it out of their systems they continued on to the church.

"I'm not gonna lie, but, I missed ya kid."

Nero smiled. "I did too."

Yeah, this was definitely turning out to be a good day.

* * *

-KNOCK KNOCK-

"Kyrie."

"Just a second!" the girl called back to the door. "Maria help me, I can't seem to get these laces straight and only 18 minutes left!" "Calm down child, all will be well." "How can you say that? There's only 17 minutes left now, what are we going to do?!" "Stay here, I'm going to see if I can find a needle and thread. We'll just sew it shut." "Please be quick, there's only 16 minutes left now!"

Dante snickered at what he heard through the door. It seemed like Nero wasn't the only one feeling the pressure. He quickly sidestepped as an old lady darted out, paying him no mind, she had bigger problems.

"You can come in."

Never being one who had to be told twice, especially when pretty young ladies were involved, Dante walked in and quietly shut the door behind him.

"So, is everything going good on your e-" Kyrie froze in mid-sentence. "Dante!" she squealed, picked her dress up a bit, and ran to him, practically jumping on him to give him a hug. "You came! Did Nero talk to you?"

"Yes he did and of course the answer is yes." Kyrie giving him a smile completely delighted. "Now, I heard you are having a problem with laces?" From where he stood, seeing the slight bunch and offset of her bodice, Dante could pretty much guess what was wrong.

"Oh...Maria and I can't seem to get it straight. I don't understand. It fit me perfectly when I tried it on before. She's going to get a needle, thread, cut off a part, and sew it shut. She should be back soon. I hope." Kyrie's face was beginning to look slightly worried.

"Turn around." Dante told her, Kyrie wondering what this was about, but still did as she was told. She squeaked when she felt a couple fingers between the top of her bodice and back. She felt a little tug. "Mm hm, there it is. You've actually got a couple of things going on here"

Kyrie spun back around to look at him with pleading eyes. "Then that means you know how to fix it? Please, please, I'm down to 9 minutes left..."

Dante stared at her in silence as all of these images of Red Queen, Blue Rose, a Devil Bringer (all attached to a very pissed off Nero) being shoved up and in every orifice of his body, and most likely, new ones being made too. The reason for these thoughts was that there was only one way to fix the dress, but it had to stay on her while doing it. However, the other problem was her. Her and the damn big brown puppy dog eyes she was giving him. Cursing under his breath, Dante reached behind him, and locked the door.

He walked around her so he could face her back. "Alright, just do what I tell you to and nothing else." Kyrie's body moved slightly from nodding her head. "What I need you to do is...put your hands to your chest and push in. We need to make sure it stays up." Dante was pretty sure he was going to be told to leave, but instead was surprised with another nod, and Kyrie doing as asked. So began the arduous task of unlacing and re-lacing the entire corset backing of the dress, and there were a lot of holes. "You put this on while it was half laced didn't you?" Kyrie nodded. "You shouldn't do that with something that has this many holes, which is why it has some knots hidden back here, plus you missed a couple holes as well." Dante scolded as he worked on getting out one of the knots. Not only were these couple of knots troublesome because of how tight the area was, but because he was also trying to keep himself from staring at her now exposed back. A very lovely one for sure. _'This kid better appreciate me, seeing as how I'm keeping my hands off of her...in a manner of speaking.'_ Dante breathed a sigh of relief as the final knot came undone and pulled out the rest of the ribbon with one big _'swoosh'_. "Got it all out, just need to lace it back up, then we'll be ready to go" and so began the pain in the ass of lacing it all back up. One little individual hole at a time. Unfortunately for them, a situation arose that made their hearts pound a million beats per second...The knob jiggled on the door, someone obviously trying to enter.

It was Maria. "Kyrie? I'm back with what I needed to fix the dress." There was no response since Dante and Kyrie were too much in shock and trying to figure out how to deal with this. If anybody knew he was in her dressing room, Dante could count on those previous visions in his head to become a reality. "Kyrie are you alright? I'll go get someone to get this door open!"

"No, it's ok! My friend just now came along and knew what was wrong. I locked the door to make sure no one came in while we are doing this. It's almost fixed now, so everything is alright!" Was all Kyrie could think of to say that would ease Maria's mind and make her go away. She looked back at Dante, both of them holding their breath, waiting for the outcome.

"Well, alright sweety. Just try not to take too long." They could hear the _'swish'_ of her skirt as she turned and went off to somewhere else.

Dante and Kyrie both gasped as they filled their lungs with much needed air. After calming down, both of their attentions went back to their current project.

"It feels much better already! Thank you so much for doing this, I really appreciate it. Where did you learn how to do this, and so well?" The girl inquired.

Dante's hands froze. How was he going to get out of this one? _ 'Damn it. Oh, I learned how to do this because I helped many hot women out of them multiple times through all these years, then helped them put the pieces back together? Shit. Wait a sec...'_ "Well, I have this friend Trish and she always likes to wear her corsets. There were a few times something came undone, or she couldn't reach, so it became normal after a while. She got tired of having to ask me for help so now she wears ones that open from the front." Very proud of his 'on the fly' bullshit answer, he continued.

"Well then, if I ever meet her I will have to thank her for doing such a good job teaching you." Both of them laughed. "Oh no! It's 5 minutes after when we were supposed to leave here! Are you almost done?" Kyrie franticly asked.

"Almost, just a couple more to go. Don't worry about the time, all brides are fashionably late, it might be an unspoken rule just to freak out the husbands to be." he chuckled, a giggle joining in. Having finished the bow, Dante moved around to her side and stuck out his elbow. "Shall we?"

With a beautiful smile, Kyrie responded, "Yes" put her arm through his, and they left the room.

xXx

Nero fidgeted, trying his best to keep from pacing, as it was already 10 minutes after the start time. _ 'What the hell is going on? Is she hurt? Did she change her mind? Did Dante stand her up?' _ That's when his eyes caught the figure of someone who would know. "Hey, Maria is Kyrie alright?" keeping his voice low so as not to draw attention from others.

"Yes dear she's just fine. We were having some issues with the dress and I went off to get some supplies so I could make a quick alteration, but when I got back, she said she didn't need me anymore. She said her friend knew what was wrong and was fixing it. She should be along any minute now." Maria consoled him.

Eyes quickly narrowed. "And just who might this friend be?"

"I'm not sure of his name, but I'm assuming the gentleman that was outside of the door when I left, seeing as how he wasn't there when I got back. His hair is the same color as yours. A relative of yours?"

"Yeah, something like that..." Nero was fuming, doing everything in his power to keep himself under control instead of doing what he wanted to, which was mutilate someone. He was distracted from his thoughts as the priest walked out to the podium, signaling that they were ready to begin, and that all should go to their appointed positions. Nero took a deep breath, walked out to take his place in the center, and prayed that he wouldn't fuck up through the ceremony and embarrass Kyrie. He jumped slightly when the music started and quickly turned his attention to the end of the aisle.

He couldn't believe it. Any worries he had flew away when he saw his gorgeous soon to be wife, moving so gracefully and closer to him. He thought she could never get more beautiful, but she proved him wrong as his eyes wandered all over her, memorizing how she looked. Her soft chestnut hair in little different buns on her head, little tendrils of curled hair hanging down, caressing the sides of her face. Tiny white flowers randomly through it, as well as spots of blue jewels, giving off little flashes when the light hit them just right. Her eye shadow was of a simple light blue, bringing out the beautiful brown eyes that were gazing into his own. His eyes traveled further down, taking in her dress. Delicate light blue sheer material graced her shoulders, connected to her beautiful bodice that was the same color as his suit. Also accompanying it was the same golden stitched design of the vines and roses. It spiraled down from the top of her dress and stopped a little past where the bodice ended and lower skirt began. The skirt a beautiful silken white material that got longer in the back, flowing with each step she took, the bundle of flowers she held was made with blue roses and white lilies. Nero had to catch himself and concentrate hard took keep random tears from falling, seeing as how his eyes were beginning to massively water up. Thankfully, it stopped and Nero couldn't think about anything, except for the woman he loved with all his heart, who was now standing in front of him. Dante had continued past him to take his place to the side, but as he went by he leaned over slightly and whispered, "You'll do just fine." Which to Nero, oddly enough, helped him relax. He reached out and gently took Kyrie's hand into his own as both of them looked nowhere else but at each other. Being swallowed down into her brown eyes, the priest's voice grew distant. Nothing else mattered.

* * *

_ **"Oh Holy one above, we are gathered here with family and our honored brethren, ** _

_ **to unite these faithful followers as one..."** _

* * *

Luckily enough for Nero there was something known as 'ring bearers' or he would totally have missed that part. Kyrie's face glowed as she slid the ring onto his finger, but was a little confused at the smirk he was giving her as he put the ring on her own finger, and she didn't have to wait long to find out.

**"You may kiss the bride."**

Very quickly, Kyrie found herself pulled forward and in his arms, cheeks blushing to a rosy pink, as she looked up at Nero who had a wide smile. She opened her mouth to start saying that this might be considered slightly inappropriate, but Nero wasn't giving a damn about what she was going to say, and made it very clear as he shut her up real quick by way of his mouth on hers. It was by no means a soft and gentle kiss; it was long, deep, and definitely not unwanted. The proof being that Kyrie had yet to try getting out of it. Of course, it was bound to happen, and of course, it was going to be from the jackass himself, a loud wolf whistle sounded along with "Go Nero!" which just added another thing to Nero's list of 'Reasons To Bash Dante's Skull In'. It ended up not being a bad thing since people were seeing it as good fun and laughing while one of the people sitting down called out, "come on we're getting hungry!". Nero and Kyrie separated from each other, both laughing and a bit red in the face, grabbed each other's hands and made their way out of the church. Once outside they had to stop a few times since pictures were being taken.

Nero took a moment to look around him until he found what he was looking for. "Dante, over here!" receiving a smile as Dante got off the wall he had been leaning on and went to join them. "What were you doing over there?"

"You both were getting your pictures taken and I didn't want to get in the way." he cheerfully replied.

"Well that's just too damn bad." a feminine voice popped in. "Sara, over here!" Kyrie urgently waved the lady over. The lady quickly got the hint that she was going to have to be stealthy. Kyrie wedged herself between the two men, put her arms through theirs and held on tight. "Smile!"

There was no way they were going to get out of this. Dante and Nero were both too occupied looking at Kyrie, both thinking the same thing, was that she swore. Saying damn wasn't really a big deal with most people, but that random word coming out of her mouth of all people was mind-boggling. It seemed that she was having a lot of fun and knew she could get away with saying that around them. After their moment of shock, Dante and Nero remembered why they were in this position, and before they even turned their heads, they heard a -CLICK-

"Hold on, she caught us off guard, let's do this again." Both Nero and Dante straightening themselves out and facing forward. Sara smiled and raised her camera but was quickly stopped when Kyrie yelled out.

"No! Don't take another one. I want the one you just did." Laughing when the men cringed.

Nero brought his hand to his face. "Why on Earth would you want a picture of us like that?"

"Because it's a normal picture of us. No serious posing. Just friends together." The two of them nodded in agreement, but only if they knew what she had just pulled. She knew that there would be no other way to get a good picture of their real personalities at this event unless she pulled one over on them. It wasn't something hard to come up with, especially them well aware of her upbringing, that randomly swearing would definitely get their attention. Kyrie giggled while she looked forward to seeing it developed. Her standing in the middle, with her arms in theirs, smiling wide while the both of them were looking down at her completely stunned. "Well, I'm off now to go visit with the others, you two have fun!" and off she went.

The two of them crossed their arms, watching Kyrie as she skipped off. Without taking his eyes off her, Dante voiced his thoughts. "I don't know about you, but that seemed a little shady to me."

"I was thinking the same thing," Nero agreed, looking sideways at Dante, and then sighed. "Now that this is done with, you hungry?"

"Always"

xXx

Dante stared down, very hesitant to even touch what was in front of him, which was a large round silver platter with a dome shaped top, complete with a little card on it with his name. What made him think so seriously about this was that Nero kept making him walk behind him, not allowing Dante to even grab a little bologna wrap. He definitely did try, only to get his ear pulled roughly by some claws, the pain of that outweighing the desire to defy Nero.

"Just open it already, God..."

Dante gave a threatening look. "If this is kitty litter I'm going to take it and dump it down your throat."

"I don't see what your issue would be if that were the case, I mean you are getting up there in your years, and I'm sure you are having problems making it to the bathroom. I'd say, consider this a favor, from one friend to another..." Nero smirked because he knew how much Dante wanted to mouth off to him but some people had just walked near to where they were both standing.

Giving Nero one last look of hatred he turned around closed his eyes and braced himself then yanked off the lid. It was heavenly. The smell. The scents that slowly rose up to him in small warm waves. It couldn't be. He opened his eyes. It was. Before him was an amazing looking pizza. Every kind of topping he could think of was present. Dante lifted an eyebrow and tilted his head, surprised that someone went to the lengths of doing what he saw, which was a giant smiley face. Sliced pineapple rings were used for the eyes, a chunk of a red bell pepper sticking out for the nose, and a mix of pepperoni and black olives for the smile. Not to forget the outer ring of anchovies that lined around the crust. Dante just laughed. "Someone had way too much fun with this." He reached down and grabbed one of the pineapple eyes. "Let me guess, it was Kyrie."

"Nope." Nero answered as he tilted his head back to get the rest of the other pineapple eye in his mouth, once done chewing continued. "I did it. Since on a fair amount of letters you wrote on how your were eating your amazingly amazing pizza, especially that one time you drew a heart on a letter with pizza sauce, I figured this would be perfect for you. It's completely fresh made. I decorated it right before the wedding started and had the chefs keep it in a warmer. I knew it wouldn't be a big deal since pizza holds out great with almost anything." Of course, the whole time he was speaking Dante had already grabbed a slice and eating it. Since his mouth was completely full, Dante give a nod and a thumbs up.

After swallowing, Dante licked his lips. "There's only one thing I can say right now, is kid, you rock." Laughing, he grabbed another slice, Nero grabbing some as well. They stood there and ate the rest in silence, just enjoying the food and air, and no doubt thinking they were going to have to separate soon. People were saying their goodbyes, the last of the food was being wrapped up, and the walkways being swept.

"I just want to say, and I mean it, that I really enjoyed being here today. Definitely a breath of fresh air from the lower city area and constantly on jobs. Everything today was great." Dante gave Nero a smile, another of the many he had already given. "I couldn't believe that I had gotten an invitation. I expected a letter saying you got hitched. It really meant a lot to me." Dante's face turned a bit thoughtful. "You worked your ass off real hard. Before that battle, during it, and after. She's a great girl, you were extremely lucky to find her, and you deserve this. I'm real proud of you, kid."

Nero pulled his head away from the hand that was ruffling his hair. "I told you not to call me kid. I am going to be 25 YEARS old in a few months." he grumped out. "As to what you had said though, I really enjoyed you being here as well. I also wanted to thank you for what you did for Kyrie and me. Especially for her. Fixing her dress and walking her down. She adores you and I think sees you as an older brother..." Then Nero's voice dropped low with an edge to it. "I'm warning you now, if you EVER have anything to do with her clothing again I will shoot your nuts off and shove Red Queen up your ass. Remember, I've already impaled you to a statue using your own sword, I'm sure I won't have any trouble doing it again..."

"Damn, you're pretty creepy when threatening."

Nero just rolled his eyes. They both shared a last moment of silence, knowing the time was finally here.

Dante reached out and shook Nero's hand, giving it a squeeze. "Keep in touch will ya?"

"I will, and make sure you actually visit for a change, not just writing letters." Nero commented over his shoulder as he walked away.

"Alright, alright, if I have to. Later, Nero." Dante replied as he went the opposite direction. Truth was, he really had wanted to visit but wasn't sure where exactly on the friend scale he sat. Since Nero never asked if he would come to visit, Dante didn't ask. Ironically enough, Nero had been thinking the same way, funny thing is, it took a wedding for them to figure out that they did hold each other in high regards. Life had finally come together, and for that, everyone was grateful.

* * *

_ **But, as they say, ** _

_ **nothing lasts forever...** _


End file.
